This overview course provides an introduction and orientation to the profession of Investor Relations. Lectures, discussions and cases will focus on what knowledge, abilities, and characteristics are required for the successful IR professional. Discussions will illustrate ways in which IR officers successfully communicate their company's story to Wall Street. Topics include: The role of IR; disciplines relevant to the IR function; fundamentals of communications and disclosure; industry and company analysis; strategic objectives of an IR program.

Investing is a process that involves anticipating future outcomes based on information and knowledge that exist today. By analyzing past performance and other relevant information pertaining to an investment opportunity, you can make calculated predictions of how that opportunity will perform in the future. This course shows you how this process works and how you can apply rational techniques to assess risk and make good investment decisions. Topics include accounting practices and principles, financial analysis techniques, evaluating information sources and their relevancy, evaluating and managing risk, valuation, and pools of funds and their objectives.

An overview of the investment markets, this course examines the menu of securities available in today's market and the attributes of the various types of securities. It will also examine the purpose of capital markets, capitalization structure, how domestic and global securities markets work, the trend toward globalization of the capital markets, the organized exchanges for stocks and bonds and securities trading, the mechanics of the buy-side/ sell-side, the role of investment bankers and brokers, derivatives, and other related topics.

This course focuses on the corporation's external environment and its resulting legal and social responsibilities. Topics include relevant federal and state legislation, the role of the courts and legal decisions, securities regulations and their interpretations, disclosure requirements, corporate governance, and social responsibility.

This course focuses on understanding the communications environment involved in creating a dialogue between publicly held companies and their investor constituents, and developing the communications skills needed by the investor relations professional in dealing with the investment community. Topics include targeted research to identify potential audiences; gathering of financial and industry information for development of corporate messaging; planning and implementation of communications vehicles to be used in outreach programs to investors; and development of long-term relationships with key investor constituents. The entire communications process will be presented in the context of disclosure and materiality issues, including the legal framework within which investor relations professionals must necessarily operate.

This capstone course includes topics such as structuring an IR program, shareholder relations, the two-dimensional role of the IR function, the position of the IR professional in the management structure, recent changes in the profession, and the impact of technological advances, especially as they pertain to information gathering, analysis, and communication. Students will be required to complete an integrative mini-project which will be decided upon by consultation with the instructor.